It was more than a myth or a legend. Seven Days Of Sin was merely the bait set for tourists that thirsted for adventure and chased superstitions as we did.
We were on a well-worn path, a key indicator many people had taken this trip before we had. The lack of wildlife in a forest so dense and deep was the second sign something wasn’t right. Animals were always aware of predators that lurked within their domain before humans were. This seemed like something else entirely, though.
There were birds--large black crows seemed to be following us without making a sound. Every time I looked; they were there. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Have any of you seen the big creepy birds watching us?” Amber asked, her unease carrying in the laugh she forced.
“Well, this is the woods,” Alex reasoned.
“I have,” Bellatrix replied to her. “I didn’t want to say anything in case it was just me.”
“You know what the story says, don’t you?” Alex baited in a deep voice.
Sasha sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Can you not do that?”
“The crows are the manors gatekeepers, an omen of death and misfortune to come,” he continued as if she’d never spoken. “No one can outrun or hide from the eyes in the trees or the sky.”
“Knock it off, Alex,” Jacob warned.
“Don’t be such a puss! Do you know when you’re really supposed to shit your pants? When you hear the bells of the demons themselves.”
As soon as he said that a chime came from our far left, way off in the distance. We stopped dead in our tracks and looked at one another.
“Was that--?”
“Shh!” I hushed Tyson, listening closely.
The chime came again, the unmistakable ringing of a bell, the kind you would hold in your hand and shake. It didn’t stop right away this time.
It continued to ring like someone was doing exactly that, shaking it back and forth with no rhyme or method. Louder, but no closer than before. It had an eerie familiarity to it I couldn’t place. I glanced at my sister and saw her concentrating on the sound, recognizing it in the same confused way.
“This is fucking great!” Alex clapped his hands and laughed.
“What the hell is funny about this, man? We should go back, right now,” Collin stated, his voice wavering.
“Fuck that! This has to be a joke. You guys can’t believe there are demons out here ringing bells.”
“Demon-people,” Jacob corrected. “Maybe he’s right, babe. This is getting weird.”
“No way! We’re almost there.”
“Alex, you’re behaving like the guy in horror movies that gets everyone killed,” I countered.
“Seriously,” Bellatrix agreed.
“I had a virgin joke ready for that, but after last night it doesn’t apply.”
“But I wasn’t a virgin?”
“Whatever.” He did some diva wave with his hand and turned on his booted heel and began striding forward again. As he did, the ringing abruptly stopped, the silence growing louder without the chimes to break it up. “See, we’re fine.”
Jacob huffed, giving us an apologetic look as he followed behind him.
“What do you wanna do?” Tyson asked Sasha in a soft voice.
“I want to see the house too.”
“Are you sure? You know we don’t got the complexion to be taking chances like they do.”
“Ty!” I slapped his arm.
“Just kidding.” He smiled and rubbed my shoulder.
“You’re a fool,” Sasha teased.
They held hands and began to follow after Jacob and Alex, leaving the four of us to trail behind them. We didn’t have much of a choice. Splitting up was a worse idea than continuing to the manor.
“Manor of Demonio,” Jacob read aloud, snapping a photo of the large metal plaque affixed to a brick pillar at the end of a massive driveway. “It’s the same one they had pictures of in that haunted house.”
From our vantage point he seemed to be right. The manor itself was a few yards away. Iron gates meant to offer a semblance of security were wide open, a chain someone had cut with bolt cutters lay rusted beside them. I found that a little unsettling.
The grass was cut and free of clutter. Same with the driveway, it lacked what the elements would have placed there. Someone was clearly upkeeping the property so why hadn’t they re-secured the gates?
“This place is huge,” Bellatrix mused out loud.
We stared up at the large structure sitting atop a hill. It had a very Victorian look to it.
“Come on, before it gets too much later.” Alex slipped between the open gates and made his way up the driveway.
It was a good four-minute walk by foot from the end of the drive to the top, making the total time it took to get from the car to the manor nearly thirty-five minutes. Surprisingly no one seemed winded or burnt out. I hoped that continued on the walk back. We’d be doing it in total darkness with three mini flashlights to guide us along.